Most sport psychologists work with athletes on the mental side of their sport in an office setting (usually one hour per week), providing them with mental tools that they can use during training and competitions. This approach makes about as much sense as a coach offering their racers technical instruction and then telling them to [...]
This article is a challenge for you to take an essential, yet often neglected, piece of the ski racing success puzzle and make it a priority during the off-season. Let me elaborate in three ways. First, I speak to racers, coaches, and parents around world about the psychology of ski racing. Whenever I get the [...]
If you do anything to work on the mental side of your ski racing during this off season, it better be mental imagery. Why, you ask. Because there is no more powerful mental tool than mental imagery and it can have a huge impact on your ski racing. And here’s my challenge to you: If [...]
Note: This article is an encore presentation of a previously published article that never gets old. The race season is finally over. After a long and demanding winter, you're probably tired of skiing (regardless of whether the season was a triumph or a disappointment). It's time to hang up your skis, pack away your gear, [...]
Wouldn't it be great if ski racing had a formula that you could follow to be successful? Imagine if you had a list of things you simply needed to do (for example: get into shape, hone your technical and tactical skills, get your equipment dialed in, tune your skis) and, voila, you would have a [...]
With the season drawing to a close, it is, for every racer, a time of reckoning in which you look back and evaluate what kind of season you had: one to be proud of or one to reflect back on with disappointment and perhaps regret. One of the primary criteria that racers use to judge [...]
Note: This article is an encore representation of a topic that never gets old. It’s hard to believe, but there is only about a month of the race season left. After many days of training and racing, the end is in sight. At this late point in the season, you will have fallen into one [...]
Having just read the title of my new article, You may be thinking: “Has Dr. Jim finally lost it? What does sleep have to do with ski racing?” Let me explain. Have you ever tried to sleep? You lie in bed and tell yourself that you have to sleep and you try, try, try to [...]
My family just returned from Ski Week (otherwise known as Winter Break for nonskiers) up in Tahoe where our two daughters (9 and 7) are members of the Sugar Bowl Ski Team. As many of you may know, California is suffering through a fourth straight year of drought. The temperatures were well above freezing at [...]
I came across a great video of Marcel Hirscher at age 14 competing in the Topolino Games (a world juvenile championships). Do you see the makings of a superstar at that age? I'm not sure I do.